Frank Zappa’s Final American Show To Be Released on Live Concert Album Zappa ’88: The Last U.S. Show Including First Official Release of “The Beatles Medley”

Frank Zappa’s last live tour in America will be released as a compilation live album entitled Zappa ‘88: The Last U.S. Show. Despite the misconception of the title, the last ever date from their North American tour was on March 25 1988, but this album will consist of different live performances throughout the States, so it’s really The Last U.S. Tour.

After the American tour, the ‘88 band went on to tour in Europe, after that Zappa decided to call it quits and had to forfeit $400k in revenue.

The album will include some of the band’s cover versions they performed live such as Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post”, and the much talked about, “The Beatles Medley”, a mash-up of Beatles songs and the lyrics changed to reflect the sex scandal surrounding Jimmy Swaggart who is an evangelist preacher who had his own TV show at the time. Swaggart was caught with a sex worker. Anyone who is familiar with Zappa knows how outspoken he was about everyday affairs and politics in America, which is all too sadly still the same issues today. 

The song, “I Ain’t Got No Heart” (Recorded live at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York) is now available to stream online.

Straight away you can tell this will be the first track on the album, it sounds like the first song anyone would play at a concert. It’s amusing which is what you would expect from a Frank Zappa song. It’s fun, it’s kitsch, it’s a good time.

The album will be released digitally on 2 CDs, or as a 4LP 180gram vinyl box set, the vinyls will be black, or a limited edition purple variant which is exclusive to the Frank Zappa official store on uDiscover.

Last year, Zappa released two new box sets. The first collects 70 unreleased tracks and the second, a Halloween special.

Tracklisting on for the album are as follows:

 2CD/DIGITAL

DISC 1

1. “We Are Doing Voter Registration Here”
2. The Black Page (New Age Version)
3. I Ain’t Got No Heart
4. Love Of My Life
5. Inca Roads
6. Sharleena
7. Who Needs The Peace Corps?
8. I Left My Heart In San Francisco
9. Dickie’s Such An Asshole
10. When The Lie’s So Big
11. Jesus Thinks You’re A Jerk
12. Sofa #1
13. One Man, One Vote
14. Happy Birthday, Chad! 
15. Packard Goose Pt. 1
16. Royal March From “L’Histoire Du Soldat”
17. Theme From The Bartok Piano Concerto #3
18. Packard Goose Pt. II
19. The Torture Never Stops Pt. I
20. Theme From “Bonanza”

DISC 2

1. Lonesome Cowboy Burt
2. The Torture Never Stops Pt. II
3. City Of Tiny Lites
4. Pound For A Brown
5. The Beatles Medley
6. Peaches En Regalia
7. Stairway To Heaven
8. I Am The Walrus
9. Whipping Post
10. Bolero
11. America The Beautiful

4LP VINYL

LP1

SIDE 1 

1. “We Are Doing Voter Registration Here” 
2. The Black Page (New Age Version) 
3. I Ain’t Got No Heart 
4. Love Of My Life 

SIDE 2

1. Inca Roads 
2. Sharleena 
3. Who Needs The Peace Corps? 
4. I Left My Heart In San Francisco 

LP2

SIDE 3

1. Dickie’s Such An Asshole 
2. When The Lie’s So Big 
3. Jesus Thinks You’re A Jerk 
4. Sofa #1 
5. One Man, One Vote 

SIDE 4

1. Happy Birthday, Chad! 
2. Packard Goose Pt. I 
3. Royal March From “L’Histoire Du Soldat”
4. Theme From The Bartok Piano Concerto #3
5. Packard Goose Pt. II 
6. The Torture Never Stops Pt. I 
7. Theme From “Bonanza” 
8. Lonesome Cowboy Burt 

LP3

SIDE 5

1. The Torture Never Stops Pt. II 
2. City Of Tiny Lites 
3. Pound For A Brown PT. I 

SIDE 6

1. Pound For A Brown PT. II 
2. The Beatles Medley (Lennon/McCartney) 
3. Peaches En Regalia 

 LP4

SIDE 7

1. Stairway To Heaven 
2. I Am The Walrus 

SIDE 8

1. 1. Whipping Post
   2. Bolero 
   3. America The Beautiful